Integrity is and will remain one of the most significant, if not the most significant, challenge that the fire service will face moving forward.

Integrity and personal accountability are two individual level traits that challenge not only interpersonal relationships and the brotherhood, but the overall trust in departments as a whole.

This is certainly not a new issue to us. Any time you have human beings involved in making choices of any kind, there will be some who make decisions that offer no legitimate benefit to themselves, their relationships or the larger works of their organizations.

So why then is this becoming such a big issue for us?

I think a significant part of the reason is cultural and technological changes that allow everyone to find out about individual actions so quickly, and our increased dependence on them and blind belief in what is posted.

As a society our attention span on average has become less than that of a gold fish. Literally. They’ve done studies.

That fact, coupled with our cultures ever increasing narcissism, need for instant gratification and the feeling that it’s ok to publicly ‘attack without fact’ as well as borrow or steel the works of others, puts us on a fast lane to making poor choices.

Our brains are slowly being rewired to act without considering the potential consequences.

There is a constant pounding of material into our brains through reality TV, social media, the news and pop culture that reinforces these negative behaviors. There are shows that pit people against people, internet posts that attack or attempt to de-legitimize individuals or organizations, and public commentators who comment without thought, all consumed by a culture that feeds off it like it’s sugar.

Inevitably, this ridiculous behavior has seeped into the fire service.

We have personnel, who I will not call firefighter’s or firemen because they do
not live up to the core values of our service, who down individual firefighters, officers and organizations without knowing them, or the first thing about their departments.

We have personnel who are stealing other instructor’s materials and passing it off as their own.

We have people launching fire and forget comments on social media about short video clips or photographs of incidents with no context of what was actually occurring at the incidents.

We have personnel commenting on incident strategy and tactics employed by department’s who’ve never been to similar incidents in their entire career.

There are individuals or organizations who attempt to discredit or de-legitimize the efforts of others for their own personal gain.

And in the most egregious situations, we have brother and sister firefighters turning on each other without cause, fact or merit.

So I ask you, how does this live up to the standards set forth by those who’ve gone before us? Those who worked so hard to build up our service. Those who have paid with their lives in the name of what we do.

How does this live up to the expectations of the people we are here for? How can they continue to support us, hand off their children to us, and let us into their homes, if we stray from the principles that make up the foundation of the fire service?

How can we look at each other and have the trust that is so vital to what we do, if in the times outside of incident response we’re cutting each other’s throats, stabbing each other in the back, trying to bring others down and representing the fire service with very poor decision making, and then posting it all on social media?

How does that trust develop between brothers? How can we feel that you’ll be there for us in our time of need when you spend all of your other time tearing us down?

How does the public support and trust you when they are hit with news of firefighters fighting with each other, committing crimes and acting like fools on social media?

At the foundation level, we need to operate with strong core values, and we need integrity to be at the heart of that value system.

Those values must be the blood that runs through us and gives life to everything we do.

It must be the basis for the trust that we build with everyone we interact with, from our brothers and sisters, to other departments, and to the public which we serve.

Samuel Johnson, a British scholar and writer, wrote back in the 1700’s that “There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.”

I think that can be updated for the fire service to say “There can be no brotherhood without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.”

We are our brother’s keeper. That is not a sentiment we just drag out when the time is right. That is 24/7/365 from the day you sign up to the day you die. If that isn’t you than you have no place in this service.

“It’s not about me, it’s about we, and we are here for them.”

I believe in this statement whole heartedly, but in reality it has to be a little about me. I have to have core values, I have to make the choices based on what’s right, and I have to be committed to doing that all the time.

If we fail to employ that value system, then there can’t be a collective ‘we’ as we’ll only be serving our individual needs.

And if there is no ‘we’, then it is ‘them’ who will suffer. And if ‘they’ are suffering, then ‘we’ have failed.

Take a look at yourself. A real look. Don’t just look at the person you’ve convinced yourself is you. Look at your actions. Listen to your talk. Evaluate those you associate with.

Is everything what it should be? Could you be proud of your actions and defend them to the elderly woman who sits on the porch down the street or the little boy who waves as you go by? Would you be proud to tell your grandfather or your child about your actions?

If not, then you have some work to do. Don’t get swallowed up by our society and the decline value system it operates on. Don’t let others define who you will be. Don’t follow them down the path, rather lead them by your example.

Stand up. Be a Fireman. Do what is right. Do what you swore you would. Do your part to keep our service alive and thriving. Live up to the expectation established by those before us and raise the bar for those who will come next.

Be your brother’s keeper and be there for ‘them’ not just when they call, but at all times. Be there for ‘them’ by allowing them to trust we are who we say we are.

Be smart, be as safe as you can, and always DO YOUR JOB!

BB